this oil platform was operated by black elk energy. president barack obama in the republican and democratic lawmakers expressed confidence they can avoid the so-called fiscal cliff this worst-case scenario means that tax hikes would automatically go into effect by the end of the year of the deal isn't reached the party leaders met at the white house for about one hour, president barack obama and house speaker john painter didn't try to work out their differences over taxes bigger wants to keep the rates the same for all income brackets while the president wants to raise taxes on the wealthy and there wasn't a detailed discussion on cutting entitlement programs. >> i el 1 de framework of the deals with reforming our tax code and reforming our spending. >> we feel we understand what the problem is and i feel very good about what we are able to talk about we have the cornerstones of working something out we both will have to give up some of the things that we know our problem. >> harry reid is saying that negotiators will work through the